Kian O’Shea (18) describes himself as a “third-culture kid”.
“I am half-Irish, half-Taiwanese and then growing up in Singapore after being born in Japan, I would say I am a third-culture kid,” O’Shea says.
The phrase third-culture kid was coined in the 1950s by American sociologist Dr Ruth Hill Useem and it refers to people who spent their formative years in a country that is not either of their parents’ countries of origin.
O’Shea’s mother is from Taiwan and his father is from Malahide, Co Dublin. After graduating from Trinity College Dublin his father moved to Japan.
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“My dad always had this dream about moving to Japan. My mum was a flight attendant, and she was travelling around, and I think they met through friends in Japan, then they had me. I was born in Tokyo, and we lived in Japan until I was almost four.”
His parents decided to move to Singapore as they knew it was an incredibly safe place to raise a child and had great job opportunities.
“Anyone could walk the streets at 3 or 4 in the morning in Singapore and nothing would happen to them. Everything is very clean. You know that chewing gum is banned there? It’s like a metropolis, it’s very modern, very new but it’s also safe, small and somewhat cosy.”
After graduating from secondary school in Singapore last year, O’Shea felt he had no real choice but to move abroad.
“I wouldn’t be able to get a job in Singapore because I don’t have permanent residency. The only option is for me to go back to my host countries, either Taiwan or Ireland, to get some work experience.”
He decided to move to Ireland over Taiwan as he thought that life in Taiwan would probably be quite similar to life in Singapore.
“Living in Europe would be something completely new to me as well. It would give me the opportunity to really put myself out there.”
O’Shea initially looked at living in central Dublin. “My uncle lives here, and told me that the housing situation in Ireland was really expensive. And that it’s quite hard to get a place within budget but also in a good area. I applied to lots of places but either got no reply, or the prices were crazy. It was like €2,000 or €3,000 a month, which seems excessive.”
O’Shea looked farther afield and ended up finding somewhere in Malahide. “My grandmother lives in Malahide, I try, whenever I can, to do the 20-minute walk and pop in on her, to see how she’s doing.”
Moving to Ireland has been a homecoming of sorts for O’Shea. “Coming to Ireland I feel I am not so much of a foreigner, but also not a local. I am somewhere in between. I feel I’m a citizen of almost everywhere and nowhere at the same time. It can get quite confusing sometimes, having this blended identity. Sometimes I ask myself am I Irish? Am I Taiwanese? Am I Singaporean? What am I?”
O’Shea has a transatlantic accent that he feels a bit self-conscious about.
People here are okay with you not dressing all branded, we’re able to just go out and have a proper conversation
— Kian O’Shea
“When I moved to Singapore I attended a local nursery school and developed a sort of local Singaporean accent. Then I went to international school, and developed this international, third-culture kid accent, an American-British sort of accent. Within the short amount of time I’ve been here I’ve noticed there has been some changes in my accent or the way that I speak to people.”
He says his parents noticed his accent had changed when they came to visit at Christmas.
While O’Shea is very positive, he did admit that moving to Ireland came with its challenges.
“I had to get used to not having hundreds of friends in close proximity. I had to get used to keeping myself company. I had to get used to the way people act, speak and communicate here.”
One of the biggest differences between Singapore and Ireland for O’Shea is how people approach friendship.
“Sometimes things in Singapore feel quite transactional. Are you hanging out with me just for the popularity? Or hanging out with these people because they dress or act a certain way or because their dad owns a yacht or something like that?”
O’Shea feels that people in Ireland are more interested in who he is as a person.
“People here are okay with you not dressing all branded, we’re able to just go out and have a proper conversation.”
O’Shea is working at the Grand Hotel in Malahide and in sales for a Fintech company. He is on a gap year of sorts, though admits he might take two gap years.
“I have quite a list of universities I want to apply to,” he says. This list includes Trinity College, UCD, Copenhagen Business School and Bocconi Business School in Milan, among others.
O’Shea is unsure where he will end up but he is very much appreciating life somewhere so different from where he grew up.
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“In Singapore everything was so loud, fast and colourful, whereas here it’s a more slow, predictable pace where we might just have some drinks in the pub and hang out and then call it a night. You know, that’s definitely something.”
We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland in the past 10 years. To get involved, email newtotheparish@irishtimes.com or send us two lines about yourself using the form below.
